Episode 133: The Art of Fake-Ending Wars

<div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="9pt66" data-offset-key="7gv3q-0-0"> <div class= "public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="7gv3q-0-0"><span data-offset-key= "7gv3q-0-0">"Yemen war: Joe Biden ends support for operations in foreign policy reset," reports the BBC. "Trump: US will be out of Afghanistan by Christmas 2020," cheered Military Times. "Trump Orders Withdrawal of U.S. Troops From Northern Syria," the</span> <span data-offset-key="7gv3q-0-1">New York Times</span> <span data-offset-key="7gv3q-0-2">told us.</span></div> <div class= "public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="7gv3q-0-0"> </div> </div> <div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="9pt66" data-offset-key="3i2pe-0-0"> <div class= "public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3i2pe-0-0"><span data-offset-key="3i2pe-0-0">For decades, the United States has very often appeared to have "ended" wars that do not, in fact, end at all. Open-ended jargon like "residual counter terror forces," "Vietnamization," "military advisors," along with deliberately ambiguous timetables, process criticisms––all are used to confuse the average media consumer.</span></div> <div class= "public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3i2pe-0-0"> </div> <div class= "public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3i2pe-0-0"><span data-offset-key= "3i2pe-0-0">America's politicians know the American public broadly dislikes war and empire––and thus wants to see it restrained––but these same politicians don't really want to end wars so they have a frequent PR problem:</span> <span data-offset-key="3i2pe-0-1">How do you make it look like you’re ending a war or occupation without really doing so?</span></div> <div class= "public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3